Comparative study of external variables that influence the decision to purchase sports equipment by young people

Abstract

The study of consumer behavior increasingly seduces not only market researchers but also entrepreneurs who are constantly seeking new alternatives and guidelines to effectively manage their businesses. Over the decades, different theories have developed in an attempt to comprehensively explain the genuine consumer decision making process. Likewise, varied explanatory models incorporating sets of influential variables have arisen and have been organized into more general dimensions in order to ease the understanding of the theories. In this context, major influential dimensions have been recognized as internal and external features of a person, the latter of which having received a lesser amount of studies and research. Therefore, the overall purpose of this work is to describe the external variables which influence consumer decisions among young people in the purchase of clothing and sporting goods, as well as compare the differences of these variables between young people in two different cities. To do this, an exploratory-descriptive study was conducted using secondary information of the central theme, as well as the implementation of an elaborate survey to extract descriptive information from the two groups of young people in the cities of Los Ángeles and Punta Arenas. Through the study the main differences between the external variables that influence consumer decisions were able to be identified.